A dinner with Lefteri “Lefty” Tsiropoulos’s family in Greece celebrating his mother and daughter’s “naming day,” Aug. 15, which also falls on a national holiday. Both of them are named Simela.
Courtesy Lefteri Tsiropoulos
A keg of a Greek version of grappa, a homemade type of wine, called Tsipouro.
Courtesy Lefteri Tsiropoulos
A gyro that will be served at EOS Greek Bowls & Pitas in Old Saybrook.
Courtesy EOS
Christopher James who is co-owner and chef at EOS and the former Skipper’s in Old Saybrook.
Courtesy Christopher James
Greek Easter at chef Chris James’s mother’s home.
Courtesy Chris James
EOS Greek Bowls & Pitas logo
Courtesy EOS
EOS Greek Bowls & Pitas logo
Courtesy EOS
OLD SAYBROOK — Same owners, different concept. Moussaka and gyros will replace fried clam rolls and fish and chips at the new eatery, EOS Greek Bowls & Pitas restaurant, formerly Skippers Seafood.
Co-owners Lefteri “Lefty” Tsiropoulos and chef Chris James plan to open the new Greek eatery, named for the Greek goddess of dawn, in June. It will be located at the former seafood place, the second Skippers in Connecticut that opened in 2020 at 688 Boston Post Road in Old Saybrook.
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The menu at the first Skippers in Niantic, known for its lobster rolls and fish and chips, will stay the same.
A handful of Greek dishes were always on the menu at both places but they became popular in Old Saybrook. From the catering menu, customers ordered trays of chicken and pork souvlaki, build-your-own gyros, spanakopita, baklava and sides of house-made tzatziki sauce.
It clicked for the pair when they discovered they were selling nearly as many Greek dishes as the classic shoreline fare.
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“It was a little weird, we’re used to selling a lot of seafood and we’re selling more Greek food. We have to listen to our customers,” Tsiropoulos said.
While EOS will be a quick-serve restaurant, selling gyros and build-your-own Greek bowls, pitas and salads, it will offer some made-ahead traditional Greek dishes that are labor-intensive to prepare.
“Almost all of our customers were in a hurry in between like lacrosse practice and dropping off kids. They all wanted to eat healthy,” Tsiropoulos said.
All the classic dishes come from family recipes with some ingredients coming directly from Greece.
Authentic specialties include stuffed grape leaves, “dolmades,” with vine leaves imported from Greece that are brined and filled with herbed rice and rolled here.
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Kolios feta cheese, a creamy blend of sheep and goat’s milk, will be imported from the village Polykastro, Greece where Tsiropoulos’s family is from.
They will also use Greek imported olives and olive oil, which have a distinctive flavor profile, James said.
“Because of the soils and the air in Greece it just gets it much more earthy tones to it,” James said. “A lot of the (olive) trees in Greece are ancient. They still have trees that have been around since biblical times.”
The pair have also ordered a special machine from Greece to make fresh loukoumades, a Greek fried donut drizzled with honey
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Both men grew up in Greek families. Tsiropoulos, an American citizen with a dual Greek citizenship, often visits his father’s village in Greece where he is greeted by 20 or more family members at the airport, he said.
“I was transplanted with Greek seeds, but I was raised in America,” Tsiropoulos said with a laugh. Here, he said, everyone called him the “Greek kid,” but visiting Greece, he was known as the “American kid.”
James’s family, whose Greek name Zamzese was Americanized to James, had run mom and pop restaurants since the 1930s in the Groton area.
James’s mother, Debbie James, who was not Greek, had to convert to the Greek Orthodox religion to marry his father. To get her in-laws’ approval she had to “immerse herself” in Greek cooking and she learned the old family recipes.
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“And she still creates those same recipes,” James said. “And they can still taste my yia yia’s (grandmother’s) cooking even though she’s no longer with us.”
Soon his mom became famous for her Greek Orthodox Easter dinners and never turned anyone away. They would have as many as 35 to 50 people come to enjoy a whole lamb roasted on a spit, or lamb legs cooked in a smoker.
His mother’s famous dish at Easter is Manestra, which is baked orzo with tomato sauce and lamb stock, which James said EOS will offer from time to time.
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People in town are looking forward to EOS opening, he said.
“I feel like we have so much support right now, between all of our Skippers customers and the local community. Everywhere we go and they hear we are with EOS they get excited,” James said.
